Check out the latest news and trips reports below or view the archives using the menu on the left. If you want to know more about the newsletter including submitting stories, see Newsletter>Publication Details. To learn more about the club, check the top menu. Some links will take you to the old website, but content will eventually move to this site.
DOC promote this Great Walk as a 3-4 day tramp with two or three overnight stays (Mangatepopo, Oturere, Waihohonu Huts) for good reason. The scenery is exceptional. Alternatively, it can be walked in two days with each day at least 8 hours. However, the Northern Circuit in a day is possible. Trail runners run it … Read more
A massive thank you to all our members – for your support and understanding throughout a difficult year for everyone and for the club. While 2020 has been challenging in many ways, there’s also been many fantastic trips and other highlights in the year, including in the last month or so. I was fortunate enough … Read more
The weather seems to have settled a bit on the mountain after weeks of wet weather since Labour weekend. But now just to spoil things, the maunga is now at volcanic alert level 2, which means that a visit to the top is no longer an option until a drop to level 1. I had … Read more
We were all ready for a weekend away and the best excuse is the opportunity to get back into nature. We arrived Friday night with a relaxing 30 minute walk to Alice Nash Memorial Heritage Hut. The advantage with reaching summer time is the long day light hours and arriving to the hut before dark. … Read more
Mt Taranaki West Side Story The stories of climbing trips to the seldom visited west side of Mt Taranaki and the final successful climb to the summit The unexpurgated version CHAPTER 1 Mr. Taranaki Maunga This latest collapse sent a massive avalanche of volcanic debris … CHAPTER 2 Taranaki West Side Story – the recce … Read more
I am not a superstitious man, but even I am loath to tempt fate by venturing out, away from civilization, on All Hallow’s Eve. On the night of Samhain, when the veil between the worlds is thinnest and the spirits of the dead are free to roam the earth, anything is possible, and good, sensible … Read more
Not a hut, not a tank, but a Turk working bee……this line from the Mountain Turk Club website intrigued me as I was hobbling around Wellington in a moon boot last February. I quickly agreed to fly south to Queenstown to assist the Mountain Turk Club building a Turk for a weekend, light relief as … Read more
As we near the year’s end it’s a great time to reflect, not just on the challenges of this year but also how much there is to celebrate. I want to firstly celebrate and thank the many volunteers that make the club as great as it is. In helping get together a list of our … Read more
‘Whio, whio’, I could hardly believe it—we had been walking for less than two hours and already my promise of sightings of the nationally vulnerable whio on this trip was coming true. I could see why the circuit we were tramping was called the Te Pua-a-Tāne Circuit—the name itself means the abundance or blossoming of … Read more
We weren’t supposed to be in the Mount Richmond Forest Park – that was Plan C. But the weather had already put paid to Plans A and B. So as we were driving up Staircase Road to the Lake Chalice carpark and a pine tree fell in slow motion across the road immediately in front … Read more